Lloydminster Council received an update on ongoing procurement efforts at the Oct. 20 Governance and Priorities Committee meeting.
The third quarter procurement report was presented for council’s review.
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The report is broken down into operations, community development services and land development. It shows what projects were procured, who it was awarded to and the amount of the project.
Coun. Justin Vance asked for details regarding the Servus Sports Centre snow removal contract. It was awarded to Rusway Construction for an estimated $35,628 per year for three years.
Vance asked if the three-year agreement for the cleaning of the Servus Sports Centre parking lot was normal. He also asked if the Cenovus Energy Hub would have a similar agreement
“This contract will be for a term of three years and we typically publicly procure them,” said Mika Wangler, procurement officer. “Yes, the Cenovus Hub was procured but has not been awarded yet. So, there will be one coming out for that.”
Coun. Michele Charles Gustafson appreciated the information provided in the report.
“I appreciate seeing the transparency of all the procurement that comes forward,” she said.
She also asked if it were possible to include how many of the bids that were awarded were from local companies and how many that applied were from local companies.
“At the moment, that’s not something that I’m tracking on a regular basis,” said Wangler. “As far as individual awards go that’s a little bit decentralized, so each department is managing the management of the bids and the contract award process.
“However, it’s not something that we couldn’t go back and take a look at.”
Charles Gustafson wanted to see more information provided on what companies are local.
“If there was a little spot for a local lens that says the number of businesses that applied for these procurement spots that were local and the number that were accepted that were local,” she said.
With the local lens in mind, interim city clerk Shannon Rowan explained there are limits to how much local preference can be given.
“We do have to keep in mind that there are trade agreements that limit the amount of local preference and we are working through the review of the procurement and purchasing policy currently to try and develop a better definition of what is local and how we would track that,” she said.
Council accepted the report as information.
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